


Reach Out

by Vialana



Series: Hope [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Blood, M/M, Pining Lance (Voltron), Post-Season/Series 02, Pre-Relationship, Serious Injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2017-05-11
Packaged: 2018-10-30 12:33:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10876878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vialana/pseuds/Vialana
Summary: Keith is injured on a mission. Again. Lance really can’t do this any more.





	Reach Out

**Author's Note:**

> Look! More angst! And some hurt Keith, just for exta fun.

According to the readout from his bayard, Lance's accuracy rating was sitting around 98%. He would be more impressed if he hadn’t just had to fight off hundreds of droids en masse while injured and covering for a half-dead Keith. Keith, who fought and swore at him when he disobeyed orders and called for a retreat when it turned out they'd been lured into a trap and were severely outnumbered. Keith, who refused to speak to any of them on the flight back to the castle because Hunk and Pidge had gone along with Lance's call. Keith, who fell unconscious on the way back and had to be rushed into a healing pod. Keith, who looked like he didn’t have a single worry in the universe now that his wounds were being treated and he was clean instead of the gory horror movie reject Lance pulled out of Red.

“Next time, I'm gonna leave him there.”

Lance hissed and turned away from glaring at the pod holding their illustrious leader. Coran just hummed, tightening the bandage wrapped around Lance's arm. None of his injuries were severe enough to warrant a pod. Hunk had come out of the mission mostly unscathed and was holed up in the kitchen keeping an eye on and making something for Pidge, who was nursing a mild concussion.

Keith, as was becoming the sickening norm, was the only paladin to sustain life-threatening injuries.

“All done.” Coran patted Lance’s bandaged injury, inciting a hiss from the injured paladin. “You should be fine in a day or two.”

“Thanks Coran.” Lance pulled his black body suit back up over his bruised torso and gingerly threaded his arm through the sleeve. The suit was already repaired from the blast that burned his arm. Magic Altean fabric. He slid off the bench and moved towards the door.

“You’re not going to stay?” Coran’s surprise was obvious. At least one paladin was always present to wait for any injured paladin to wake from the healing pod (quite often, all of them were present).

Lance paused at the threshold, looking back at Keith, frozen in healing statis. He felt sick to the stomach. “No.”

He couldn’t watch Keith in there. Not again.

Lance left the med bay.

 

* * *

 

Guilt drove Lance back to the Keith’s side sometime in the middle of the night. He'd spent hours tossing and turning in bed before resigning himself to a sleepless night watching over Keith.

Coran wasn’t in the room when Lance shuffled in, decked out in his pyjamas, robe and slippers. (At least someone was going to get some sleep even if Lance was the one dressed for it.)

There was, however, a note on the screen of the console nearest Keith’s pod.

_ Vitals were fine as at first varga. Hunk will stay with Pidge for the night. Allura isn't to be in the navigation chamber any earlier than fifth varga. Make sure Keith eats something. The pod cycle should end by third varga. _

Lance huffed, the closest he could manage to a smile right now. Coran knew him too well.

Lance tapped the acknowledge button before archiving the note. Coran refused to show them how to delete anything from the system. Apparently some of the castle bugs were very temperamental. Rather than risking a cascading system failure, Coran had simply removed the ability to delete communications. 

The only downside to this was that Pidge could pull out that message regarding an embarrassing break up back at the garrison he accidentally sent to her instead of Hunk whenever she wanted. She often enjoyed quoting it when she thought he was being too obnoxious. It definitely worked to shut him up. Especially when Keith was around.

Not that she  _ knew _ . (Though if anyone was going to figure it out instead of Hunk —who probably already had, given some of his very not subtle prodding recently — it would be her.) No one  _ knew _ . Except Shiro. And Shiro was … 

Lance shook his head to cut off any further wandering thoughts and flopped into the seat by the console. He wriggled into a comfortable position, slinging his legs up onto the empty desk and almost losing a slipper for his comfort. Only after he was properly settled did Lance look over at the occupied healing pod.

Keith was so pale behind the thick frosted glass. He was always pale, but the white healing suit looked more vibrant than his skin and the dark shadows beneath his eyes and sunken cheekbones made him look deathly ill.

All Lance could think about was how Keith had fallen silent on their way back from the mission. He didn’t reply to anyone's frantic calls. Then Red had shot towards the castle with a far too familiar roar that told them exactly how injured Keith was.

Not that Lance had needed the reminder. He spent the hours before attempting to sleep that night scrubbing Keith’s blood from his armour. When that didn’t distract him enough, he snuck into Red’s hanger and started on Keith’s. 

Lance had had to pull Keith out of Red and tear off his armour right there on the hanger floor. 

Allura had run in just as he was about to start CPR. He had never been so thankful she could benchpress an elephant without breaking a sweat before. She scooped Keith up like a sleeping child and ran all the way to the med bay, leaving Lance to push himself off the red-stained floor to follow.

He brought Keith’s armour with him when he came back to the med bay that night. It was piled next the healing pod; an empty suit, pristine as fresh fallen snow.

Lance stared at his sleeping leader. “You are such a pain in the ass.” He sighed when all he got in reply was the faint hum of the working machinery. “And I am such an idiot.”

He let the quiet of the night cycle wash over him as he counted every rise and fall of Keith’s chest.

“I'm not kidding though, you really need to stop doing this. I can't …” Lance broke off, his voice catching in his throat. He swallowed, pushing back the frantic screaming emotions that wanted to escape. “Just … please. Try.”

Of course there was no answer.

Even if Keith had been awake, Lance hadn’t expected anything different. It was just easier to say this while he was asleep, when they wouldn't get caught up in another petty argument or distracted by a Galra attack. When Lance was brave enough to face his feelings.

Lance pretended that he didn’t care. Shouted empty words about leaving Keith behind, hoping for a reaction, an argument,  _ anything _ . Keith never even looked at him.

“I hate you,” he whispered. The lie lay heavier on his skin than the deep chill of the air. 

Keith continued to sleep. Lance continued to watch over him.

 

* * *

 

Lance must have dozed off. He jerked awake as the pod beeped and started to slide open. He scrambled to his feet and caught Keith around the shoulders before he could fall to the ground.

Keith blinked and looked up at Lance blearily.

“Green face?” Lance automatically slapped at Keith’s hand as it rose to poke at Lance's face mask. Keith barely noticed. “Timizzit?”

Lance didn’t give in to the petty urge to let Keith fall onto his face. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath instead.

“Third Varga.”

Keith nodded and started to straighten, awake enough now to stand on his own. Lance wished he didn’t miss the warmth of Keith’s body against his fingertips but he’d stopped lying to himself a while ago.

Lance coughed as Keith just continued to stand and stare. “Why don’t you have a shower and change? I’ll get you some food.”

“Not hungry.”

“You know the rules about pod time.”

Keith rolled his eyes and gave the tiniest of nods. Lance would take what he could get.

As he left the room, Lance saw Keith bending down to run his fingers over his clean armour.

It was something, at least.

 

* * *

 

By the time Lance had come back from the kitchen with a plate of easily digestible food goo, Keith was already showered and dressed in his usual t-shirt and jeans. Lance decided not to point out — again — that their rooms came with pyjamas (themed pyjamas even!) that were far better suited as sleepwear. He instead silently took a seat next to Keith on the unmade bed and offered him the plate.

Keith accepted the food with a half-hearted grunt of thanks then started poking at the pile with his spoon rather than eating it. Lance knew from experience that he would have to stay to make sure Keith ate it all. He cleared his throat pointedly and Keith rolled his eyes but still shoveled some of the goo into his mouth in response.

Rather than staring while Keith ate every last spoonful, Lance let his gaze roam around the bare room.

Not much had changed in Keith’s room since Coran assigned them living space. Lance didn’t have many possessions himself, but his room still carried a sense of being lived in — a jacket thrown over the end of his bed, souvenirs from the words they visited on the desk or pinned to the walls, his slippers tucked away next to his door (his beauty products lining the shelves of his bathroom, not that anyone else had been in there, but it still counted).

Aside from the rumpled bed sheets, Keith’s room barely looked occupied.

“You don’t have to watch over me,” Keith said, pulling Lance from his suddenly depressing thoughts. “I’m fine now.”

Lance snorted derisively, startling both of them.

Keith’s gaze narrowed. “What?”

Lance should let it go. It was late. Keith was just out of a pod. Lance hadn’t slept in … hell, he couldn’t even remember. Whatever he wanted to spit at Keith wasn’t worth damaging the fragile foundations of their relationship.

“You almost died. Again.”

But then again, Lance couldn’t let such a golden opportunity pass.

Keith let the spoon fall to the plate with a soft clink. “Really? You're gonna do this now?”

“Oh, so you're smart enough to realise that you were idiotic enough to deserve a lecture, but not smart enough not to be an idiot in the first place.”

“It's not like we had many options!”

“Did you even ask?”

“There wasn't enough time.”

“Funny, ’cause I had enough time to reach you and back you up. Pidge had enough time to hack the doors. Hunk had enough time to detonate the charges.”

“Because I was acting as a distraction.” Keith enunciated each word as though Lance were the one not understanding. His arms were crossed over his chest and he had pulled his knees up to act as an additional barrier against Lance's words. The plate of food goo lay half eaten and forgotten near Keith’s pillow.

Lance took in the defensive stance and Keith’s scowl and decided he really was too tired to deal with this. Instead of shooting back another argument, he shook his head and stood up.

Keith’s arms uncrossed, his scowl fading to a confused frown. He watched Lance walk all the way to the door before rising from the bed. “Lance?”

Lance stopped as the door slid open. “I'm tired, Keith.”

“Oh.” Keith didn’t seem to know what to make of the sudden change in atmosphere. He sank back down onto the bed. “Okay.”

Lance hesitated on the threshold. “You should get some rest too. After you finish your food.”

Keith made a face but Lance could barely muster up the energy to smile. Instead of lingering, he nodded at Keith and walked out of the room before Keith said anything else to convince him to stay.

Back in his own room, Lance collapsed face first onto his bed, not even caring about his mask now. He groaned into his pillow, body aching with exhaustion. His mind was still caught up in that argument, but his anger and panic were starting to fade as sleep caught up to him.

Soon, he was only left with a hollow sadness squeezing his heart and a determined promise to himself.

This  _ would _ be the last time he had to watch Keith get hurt. He absolutely refused to watch Keith die.

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me on tumblr: [ladyvialana](https://ladyvialana.tumblr.com)


End file.
